Stuart Skinner isn’t here to save the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season.
They just need their new goaltender to make some saves. And winning some games would be nice, too.
Of course, seeing some of his teammates score goals would aid the Penguins’ cause as well.
On Saturday, the Penguins were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0, at Montreal’s Bell Centre. It marked the second consecutive shutout of the Penguins, who were blanked by the host Ottawa Senators on Thursday, 4-0.
The result extended a losing streak to eight games (0-4-4) for the Penguins, who have not won since a 4-3 road victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 4.
It has been nearly 20 years since the Penguins last had a losing streak this long. Between Jan. 6 and 23, 2006, the Penguins dropped 10 consecutive games (0-10-0) when forward Sidney Crosby was a rookie.
Acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 12, Skinner unofficially stopped 17 of 20 shots as his record fell to 11-9-4.
Skinner joined the Penguins when they were only knee deep into their slump. Despite those doldrums, he lauded the atmosphere fostered by his new teammates.
“The leadership in here is fantastic,” Skinner said Thursday at PPG Paints Arena. “And I saw that coming in Day 1. Very impressed with the group — even though that we are on a slide — we’re keeping things light, and we’re working our ourselves out of this thing.”
Crosby remained at 1,722 career points, one short of Mario Lemieux’s franchise mark of 1,723.
Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky opened the scoring 16 minutes, 41 seconds into regulation with his 10th goal of the season during a power-play sequence.
Settling a bouncing puck near the left corner of the offensive zone, Canadiens forward Cole Caufield backhanded a pass to the upper left hashmark, where Slafkovsky stroked a wrister past Skinner’s blocker.
The hosts doubled their lead when rookie forward Owen Beck scored his first career goal at 18:48 of the first period.
After a turnover in Montreal’s zone by Penguins forward Rickard Rakell, Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson banked the puck off the right boards to Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher, who immediately offloaded it to Beck. Bursting into the Penguins’ offensive zone on the left wing like a jackrabbit, Beck sped past stumbling Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon and fired a wrister from the left circle to the far side, beating Skinner’s glove.
Canadiens forward Josh Anderson scored his seventh goal while short-handed at 12:14 of the second period.
From the right corner of the offensive zone, Penguins forward Bryan Rust forced a careless pass to the near hashmarks that was happily accepted by Canadiens rookie forward Oliver Kapanen, who proceeded to chip the puck to the neutral zone. Anderson raced past Crosby and generated a breakaway. Upon arrival at the Penguins’ crease, Anderson scorched Skinner’s glove with a wrister.
It was the fifth short-handed score the Penguins had allowed this season. Entering the day, only the New York Rangers (six) had yielded more among the NHL’s 32 member clubs.
Anderson capped the scoring at 17:02 on an empty net.
Canadiens rookie goaltender Jacob Fowler, a former star with the United States Hockey League’s Youngstown Phantoms, made 30 saves to earn his first career shutout as his record improved to 2-1-1.